What the hell happened?
So, in all the now-classic romantic movies, there is a certain set up.
Girl meets boy/Boy meets girl
Girl/Boy develops feelings for boy/girl
Toss in a romantic rival, an old friendship that gets ruined, misunderstandings, spells gone awry, etc. etc. COMPLICATIONS
Girl/Boy does something to win boy/girl back/their affection, etc.
Girl/Boy and boy/girl live H.E.A.
The End.
I trust you've seen a movie or two once in your life, no? And I trust you've asked yourself once or twice how come it's sooooo easy for people in movies to get together. And how come people in movies always look so g-d GOOD all the time (that one really bugs me, personally). And where do people get IDEAS for all these romantic mishaps, anyway? And where do they get the rules that apparently every screenwriter there ever was seems to know? And why, WHY WHY WHY does no one in REAL LIFE seem to know them?
The fact behind the fiction: These screenwriters have lived through their own relationships and they're writing their own personal love stories. I imagine them sitting in their offices, dens, at their writing desks, sitting in cafes, etc. etc. when inspiration hits. And they're daydreaming, picturing their perfect guy and all the situations that could happen. And, because no one is going to sit in a movie theater for two hours watching people be all goo-goo over the moon in love with each other, they add in some controversy (Romeo and Juliet) or a rival (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Ever After, The Ugly Truth, etc. take your pick, really), or a twist to a classic tale (ANY DISNEY MOVIE, Life As We Know It), or someone getting themselves into awkward situations (Bridget Jones' Diary). So then they have something fun to watch, plus the romance.
And we sit here, watching these movies, wanting these guys that, quite frankly, do not exist. The Ugly Truth said it best: You're in love with a girl.
Now, it's not really the fact that these guys are perfect -- I can deal with that. It's the fact that these women in the movies, they get the fun stuff in a relationship. They get DATES. What ever happened to going on DATES with a guy? It's like now that we have Facebook, you're either in a relationship or you're not. There is no in-between. There is no going out with a person on DATES. If someone asks you "Do you want to go out?" It doesn't mean, "Hey, this Friday a really cool movie is coming out, wanna go see it with me?" It means, "Hey, wanna be my girlfriend? We can be all schmoozy and tell each other we love one another after a week of being together and then we can break up in a month because we're moving too fast, but don't worry, we'll get back together in a week or two because we'll realize we're, like, totally meant to be."
Yeah, screw that.
I want to go on a date. I want to have fun! I don't want to meet a guy, spend some time getting to know him as a friend and THEN be his girlfriend. I want attraction! I want that spontaneous "I'm going to flirt with you and ask you out" kind of thing because let's face it, our gut instincts are usually right. That's what they tell us, right? On a test, the first answer you instinctively choose is generally the right one, but you just second-guess yourself into a wrong answer. That gut feeling when you find someone attractive or funny or you just know you want to at least TRY to spend some alone time getting to know each other is RIGHT. The reason so many relationships and marriages are failing is because we've spent time as FRIENDS getting to know each other that when we're in RELATIONSHIPS, there's nothing left to learn and you're stuck with boring evenings together discussing the same old things, and then you get frustrated because you feel like you don't know the person, when in reality, you just know them TOO well.
To the lucky ones that found the person they want to be with and they're constantly learning new things or they're happy with the same old, same old, you're my inspiration. You're my hope for greater things. I wish to be you one day. No, you know what, I wish to be my grandparents one day. They met in college as freshmen, they became friends and they dated other people and then finally, they got together. They've been married for 54 years. They have four children, 15 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren and the perfect marriage. They don't always agree with each other, they're still in the same routine they were in before they had kids, but they're happy.
-- Cassy <3 p="p">
Girl meets boy/Boy meets girl
Girl/Boy develops feelings for boy/girl
Toss in a romantic rival, an old friendship that gets ruined, misunderstandings, spells gone awry, etc. etc. COMPLICATIONS
Girl/Boy does something to win boy/girl back/their affection, etc.
Girl/Boy and boy/girl live H.E.A.
The End.
I trust you've seen a movie or two once in your life, no? And I trust you've asked yourself once or twice how come it's sooooo easy for people in movies to get together. And how come people in movies always look so g-d GOOD all the time (that one really bugs me, personally). And where do people get IDEAS for all these romantic mishaps, anyway? And where do they get the rules that apparently every screenwriter there ever was seems to know? And why, WHY WHY WHY does no one in REAL LIFE seem to know them?
The fact behind the fiction: These screenwriters have lived through their own relationships and they're writing their own personal love stories. I imagine them sitting in their offices, dens, at their writing desks, sitting in cafes, etc. etc. when inspiration hits. And they're daydreaming, picturing their perfect guy and all the situations that could happen. And, because no one is going to sit in a movie theater for two hours watching people be all goo-goo over the moon in love with each other, they add in some controversy (Romeo and Juliet) or a rival (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Ever After, The Ugly Truth, etc. take your pick, really), or a twist to a classic tale (ANY DISNEY MOVIE, Life As We Know It), or someone getting themselves into awkward situations (Bridget Jones' Diary). So then they have something fun to watch, plus the romance.
And we sit here, watching these movies, wanting these guys that, quite frankly, do not exist. The Ugly Truth said it best: You're in love with a girl.
Now, it's not really the fact that these guys are perfect -- I can deal with that. It's the fact that these women in the movies, they get the fun stuff in a relationship. They get DATES. What ever happened to going on DATES with a guy? It's like now that we have Facebook, you're either in a relationship or you're not. There is no in-between. There is no going out with a person on DATES. If someone asks you "Do you want to go out?" It doesn't mean, "Hey, this Friday a really cool movie is coming out, wanna go see it with me?" It means, "Hey, wanna be my girlfriend? We can be all schmoozy and tell each other we love one another after a week of being together and then we can break up in a month because we're moving too fast, but don't worry, we'll get back together in a week or two because we'll realize we're, like, totally meant to be."
Yeah, screw that.
I want to go on a date. I want to have fun! I don't want to meet a guy, spend some time getting to know him as a friend and THEN be his girlfriend. I want attraction! I want that spontaneous "I'm going to flirt with you and ask you out" kind of thing because let's face it, our gut instincts are usually right. That's what they tell us, right? On a test, the first answer you instinctively choose is generally the right one, but you just second-guess yourself into a wrong answer. That gut feeling when you find someone attractive or funny or you just know you want to at least TRY to spend some alone time getting to know each other is RIGHT. The reason so many relationships and marriages are failing is because we've spent time as FRIENDS getting to know each other that when we're in RELATIONSHIPS, there's nothing left to learn and you're stuck with boring evenings together discussing the same old things, and then you get frustrated because you feel like you don't know the person, when in reality, you just know them TOO well.
To the lucky ones that found the person they want to be with and they're constantly learning new things or they're happy with the same old, same old, you're my inspiration. You're my hope for greater things. I wish to be you one day. No, you know what, I wish to be my grandparents one day. They met in college as freshmen, they became friends and they dated other people and then finally, they got together. They've been married for 54 years. They have four children, 15 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren and the perfect marriage. They don't always agree with each other, they're still in the same routine they were in before they had kids, but they're happy.
-- Cassy <3 p="p">
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